What is home insurance?

Home insurance can mean building insurance, contents insurance or both. Building insurance is often taken out with a mortgage to cover the cost of rebuilding your home should the worst happen. It generally covers you for damage to your home caused by fire, bad weather, natural disasters, damage caused by burglary or attempted burglary, man-made disasters like riots, explosions, vandalism. Coverage will differ between home insurers so it is important to check your policy documents.

Mortgage lenders can ask to see proof of buildings insurance as part of their mortgage offer so if you are a first time buyer about to buy a house or a buyer about to move properties, you should get a home insurance quote right away. The amount of buildings insurance you take out needs to cover the cost of replacing the building itself and all permanent fixtures and fittings inside it.

As well as the actual property, buildings insurance can include garages, sheds, driveways, outdoor hot-tubs (if you’re lucky enough to have one), swimming pools, paths, walls and even hedges.

This type of peace of mind can really make the difference, helping take some of the pressure out of an extremely stressful situation. Buildings insurance is also useful for non-home owners, helping to protect against any financial liability should accidental damage happen to a rented property.

Contents insurance usually covers all the contents in your home against theft or attempted theft, fire, water damage, storms or floods, smoke, lightning and malicious damage. Contents refers to all the things in your home that if you were to move, you’d take with you, including furniture, electrical equipment, clothes and bikes etc, everything that isn’t a permanent and fixed fitting.

Contents insurance can also includes accidental damage for your mirrors, glass furniture tops, any fixed glass in furniture and ceramic hobs. Standard contents insurance cover often works out to be the cheapest, but you need to make sure that it really covers the things that matter to you.

Policies can be tailored to your needs if the basic policy isn’t enough. Be honest with yourself about the amount of cover you need; cutting back on the amount you take out could mean that when you come to make a claim, you are not fully covered.